2 lakh legal cases pending against R'than govt depts

Pending court cases against various government departments in the state have become a major problem for the BJP-led Rajasthan government.

According to the figures given out by the law department, as many as 2.09 lakh cases are pending against 45 government departments in the state. In these cases government assets worth Rs 2,546 crore have either been confiscated or stayed by various courts in Rajasthan.

Sources informed that the state government is now planning to hire law graduates as legal consultants in every department. The initiative aims to resolve the cases on priority basis and clear the pendency. The performance of these advocates will also be reviewed.

A meeting of senior law department officials was held recently under the chairmanship of Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria. In the meeting, the officials said around 18,000 court notices were served to five departments in the last 25 years and no reply was filed in the majority of the cases.

The urban development and housing (UDH) and local self governance (LSG) departments have been the most insensitive sections while dealing with the court cases. The two departments have not filed replies in 90 per cent of the court notices.

Similarly, the revenue department failed to file a reply in 86 per cent of the cases, public health engineering department (PHED) did not file a reply in 78 per cent cases, panchayati raj department in 59 per cent cases and education department did not file a reply in 58 per cent cases.

Home Minister Kataria was informed that around 37,800 cases are under red category, which means that either the cases are pending for over 10 years or the assets worth Rs 10 crore and over are involved in it.

None of the departments are taking the cases seriously following which pendency is on constant rise. To expedite the process of collection and disposing of pending cases, the government now plans to depute law graduates in every department.

“Government is serious to dispose of pending cases against various departments. All the departments have been asked to give the details of pending cases on their official websites. If cases are not disposed of urgently, disciplinary action will be taken against the department concerned,” said Kataria.

The government is planning to depute legal consultant in every department and it will take all measures to bring down the pendency of cases, he added.